


Pirouette

by desk_mess



Series: BtJM One-Shots [2]
Category: Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: Blood, Gen, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:55:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24130945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desk_mess/pseuds/desk_mess
Summary: Delia thinks Beej should leave the house more. Unfortunately, some people think otherwise.(Rated Teen for Language and Implications.)
Relationships: Beetlejuice & Delia Deetz
Series: BtJM One-Shots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1762942
Comments: 3
Kudos: 105





	Pirouette

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what warnings to add, if necessary. If you are LGBT, know that I love and support you!  
> Edit: when I reference Beej's age in this, there's a bit of a time flaw. I kept using human years instead of demon years to refer to him. Oopsie.

Delia felt bad for Beetlejuice. He was constantly cooped up in the house by himself. Unfortunately this led to situations in which she hated the demonic bastard. But. In the end, he'd apologize and help her with the garden or let her plant flowers in his ever embarrassed pink hair. Despite the whole shitshow a while back (and the fact that he was impossibly old) she had started to think of him as a son. So one day, she asked him to help her with the garden. 

Delia kneeled among her precious tulips, pulling up the weeds that threatened to choke the poor beauties out. The porch creaked and she looked up. On the steps was Beetlejuice, wearing his craggy suit... and a sun hat... that looked exactly like Delia's. Delia reached a hand up and found that, yes, her straw sun hat was still there. 

"What do you need me to eat now, Daisy?" She had gotten into a habit of asking Beej to eat the creepy crawlies that infested her garden. Today, this was not the case. Beej sat down next to her and took off his hat before he started eating it. Delia winced as he crunched. 

"Nothing today. I wanted to ask if you'd like to come clothes sho-" 

"Yes, yes, yes,  _ yes _ ! Please!" Beej looked at her, pleading deeply with his amber eyes. "I  _ love _ clothes shopping!"  _ Says the man who wears the same thing every goddamn day. _ "It's so much fun! All the textures and the colours!" His hair had turned a radioactive happy green while the dying daisies that were growing there became minty. 

"Calm down," Delia laid her hands on Beej's shoulders and he stopped rambling about the first time he used a cotton gin. "Would you like to go right now?" He nodded ecstatically and sprung up, running over to her car and getting in the passenger seat. Delia sighed and shook her head. She made her way back inside the house to change out of her dirty overalls and into a clean dress. Grabbing her keys, she made her way outside, finding Beetlejuice tapping his feet so hard that the car rocked slightly. 

The mall was jam packed. Though to be fair, what could you expect on a Saturday afternoon? Delia bobbed and weaved, Beej following closely behind her. Ever since their first trip to the mall, Delia had started to force him to keep a hand on her shoulder at all times. He was very easily distracted but it also let her know when he got lost in the crowd. 

They made it to their desired store and Delia flitted around expertly while Beej followed reluctantly. His hand left her shoulder for a moment and she turned, a few dresses already over her arm. What she saw was something she had never thought would occur. Behind her, Beetlejuice had stopped and reached out, running a hand reverently over the polyester fabric of a sun dress. Said dress was a light cream with olive coloured leaves and vines. The shoulder straps were as wide as that on a tank top and the waist and chest were elastic fortified. 

Delia smiled at the sight until she looked up and saw the harsh depressed azure of his hair. She laid a gentle hand on his forearm. 

* * *

The dress was beautiful. It was also soft under his fingertips. It brought back unbidden memories of a time when he only wanted to explore. 

_ Looking in the mirror revealed a completely different boy. He was soft and squishy and the dress strained under his weight but he didn't care. He had spent endless hours carefully dying and stitching each black and white stripe and polka dot into place.  _

_ The striped skirt fell down just past his knees and flared out when he spun. The top was black with white dots placed in a meticulous diagonal pattern. The sleeves were slightly uneven and strained against the flab of his upper arms.  _

_ In the mirror, his hair flared a blazing green. Picking up the eyeliner from the counter, Beetlejuice leaned in towards the mirror and was partway through the creation of a wing when the bathroom door slammed open. The eyeliner smudged down his cheek when he jumped and dropped it into the sink. Looking up into the mirror at the face of Juno, his hair darkened to a deep violet.  _

_ Later, he could only watch and weep as the dress was torn away from him, shredded, and burned in a raging Hellfire. _

He was thirteen in human years. Barely a teenager. 

He jumped suddenly when something brushed his arm. Snapping out of the horrible memories, he looked over to find Delia smiling at him happily. "Do you want it?" Reluctantly, Beetlejuice nodded. "Great! Let me see if I can find a size that will fit you." Delia immediately thrust her chosen garments into him as she started rummaging through the hangers. 

After what felt like forever, she grabbed one and held it up to him. "Let's start with this one first and we can work from there," she laid a hand on his arm and began guiding him over to the fitting rooms. Just before they reached them, his feet turned to lead and he stopped, looking down at the pile of clothes. 

"I don't think I can do this," he said softly before turning to look at the  _ very _ concerned Delia. 

"What do you mean, Beej? I think it'll look positively lovely on you!" She smiled kindly and turned him towards her. 

"I don't know. It just... it's wrong. Guys aren't supposed to wanna wear dresses!" Delia rubbed Beetlejuice's shoulder gently. 

"Hon, you can wear whatever you want. No one will give a damn. It'll be weird, yes, but everyone loves you and you barely leave the house. Besides, you can always just take it off, ya know?" 

He knew she didn't mean it but her phrasing was unfortunate and Beetlejuice plunged back into the darkened depths of his twisted teenagehood. 

_ He had just come home from a work expedition, body throbbing with pain. Blood seeped through the back of his suit coat and he fought to remain awake through the blood loss. He trudged listlessly across the mansion floor, dripping onto the white marble. Finally, he met the staircase and sat down. Juno wouldn't be home for another three hours so he had time to "waste" patching himself up. Out of his jacket pocket, Beetlejuice pulled rolls of gauze and medical tape. Stripping out of his jacket, suspenders, dress shirt and tank top, he summoned a clone to help him patch up his back. Annoyingly, the fresh whips had caused scars on his back to be ripped open and quickly become infected. The Netherworld wasn't exactly the best place to sustain injuries, Beetlejuice had quickly learned. He much preferred how they treated wounds in the Overworld.  _

_ After the clone finished up, he vanished with a puff of nebulous green and Beetlejuice stood up, grabbing the clothes he'd removed. He made his way up the stairs and entered the bathroom. Laying down his clothes on the counter, he rummaged through his jacket pockets. Finally, he felt the crude stitching of his handiwork and pulled out the open backed dress. Searching further, he found a pair of striped leggings he'd lifted from an Overworld thrift store.  _

_ Beetlejuice emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later with a flounce and a twirl, dress brushing the doorframe of the bathroom. He bounced happily away to his bedroom.  _

_ "Take it off," Beetlejuice jumped, spun, and backed up against the closed bedroom door. In the middle of the room stood Juno. She was intimidating on any normal day but standing there, striped and dotted dresses flung over her arms, was the most intimidating Beetlejuice had ever seen her. Taking a risk, he stood up straighter, hands on his hips.  _

_ "No."  _

_ " _ **_No?_ ** _ "  _

_ "No," he spoke even more firmly and Juno raged, eyes filled with fire (both figuratively and literally). "I'm a grown ass demon and I can wear whatever I want!"  _

That was the day he learned that a holy water toaster bath hurt like a  _ bitch. _ It was just after the first dress fiasco. 

Delia laid gentle hands on his shoulders and Beetlejuice looked up. He was met with the most sincere eyes he'd ever seen on the kook. 

"Yeah.... Yeah, I-I guess you're right," nodding and standing up straight, he followed Delia the rest of the way to the fitting rooms. 

* * *

Delia waited quietly outside the fitting room. Along the aisles, mothers and daughters walked by, grabbing clothes and fawning over them. Delia checked her phone and messaged Lydia to tell her that Beej had found a dress he liked and Lydia (predictably) left her on read.  _ Typical teens. _

After roughly ten minutes, Delia began to worry. "Beej?" She called through the door. "You okay, hon?" On the other side of the door was a soft  _ click _ and it eased open. Beej popped his head and shoulder through the crack in the door and instantly Delia paled. Running down his face were glistening streams of salt water and his hair had turned a stark terrified white and sad blue. "Oh, hon, do you not like it?" Delia reached out and Beej flinched as she wiped away his tears. He shook his head violently. 

"N-no, I  _ love _ it, that's the problem!" He opened the door more and Delia had to hold back a laugh. The dress looked absolutely ridiculous on him. In a way he made it work, though. Deep down, Delia knew that once he became confident in it, he would look positively  _ fabulous _ ! The elastic bandages and cigarette burns probably didn't help his case, either. 

"Hon, there's no problem. You can love whatever clothes you want! You've seen how me and Lydia dress, haven't you? The key is confidence! Be confident and no one will try to stop you. If you let them see weakness, they'll play with your negative thoughts and make them worse." Delia gave the demon a soft smile and a shoulder pat. Beej nodded firmly and stepped forward, hair flushing happy emerald and frosting affectionate magenta. Delia moved aside to let him through and he stepped into the empty space between the fitting rooms and aisles. He turned around slowly to face Delia, shooting her a slightly shaky yet sincere smile. He took a deep breath before reaching his tiptoes and spinning around, ripped socks propelling him quickly. In the brief snatches she saw of his face, Delia saw that Beej's eyes were closed but his brilliant fanged smile had reached them. He stopped suddenly and Delia peered around him to see a man leering and clapping sarcastically. He said something to Beej and the demon's hair shifted to a vibrant vexed vermilion.  _ Uh-oh. _

* * *

"Keep going, fag, it was a nice show!" the clapping jock jeered. Beetlejuice's scalp itched. Behind him, the sound of heels began approaching.  _ Oh boy. _

"If you were enjoying it doesn't that mean that you're also gay?" Beetlejuice poked. The jock's face flushed and he stuttered slightly. 

"When did you cucks become so bitchy?" The jock fired back after sputtering for a second. The heels stopped approaching and a hand rested on Beetlejuice's arm.  _ And then there was Delia. _

"Hey! I  _ will not _ have you talk to my son that way!" Delia reached into her purse and pulled out a black and silver canister. "Make one more comment against him and you get the mace!" The jock put his hands up placatingly and backed away slowly. Once he got to the end of the aisle he spun around and booked it out of the store. 

Beetlejuice slowly melted to the ground and Delia sat down next to him. "Hey, what's wrong, Beej?" He looked over at her and pulled her into a hug. 

"Did you mean it?" 

"What part?" Delia's fingers carded his now magenta hair. 

"You called me your son. No one's called me that before," Beetlejuice pulled away slightly and stiffened at the face Delia pulled. Her  _ I'm gonna punch a bitch  _ face was not one you wanted to be on the receiving end of. 

"Of course I meant it!" She yelped out. Delia took a moment to stand and Beetlejuice followed. "Now," she said with a clap "Let's get you changed back into your suit and find you some more dresses!" 

Even under threat of exorcism, Beetlejuice would never admit that he cried the whole car ride home. 

**Author's Note:**

> Here I am, being mean to the faves again. This one-shot is based off an anon asking for protective Delia. Hope you liked!  
> Remember: You are loved and cherished and we'd hate to lose you <3.


End file.
